And no, not Dave keeping me locked in the basement! :)
I am so sick of being ripped off by show photographers.
You know when the show photographer is one that really sucks, that will be the weekend you do well.
I guess on one hand you could always hope for crappy show photographers, but then you would never have a really good record of your wins. Catch 22.
So Nurple got a Group 1 last weekend, and when I saw who the photographer was, I didn't want to get a photo, but it's kind of hard to explain that to the Judge, in front of the photographer, why you really don't what a photo. So, we got a picture. There are 4 shots of Nurple on her website. Two with him in a profile stance with his head turned towards the camera. He looks like his neck was removed and his head was pasted on top of his shoulder. Two were profiles. Not great, but at least you can tell he has a neck.
So, what is the problem you ask?
The pricing structure. In Canada the photos were $50 each (YIKES!) but she worked her butt off to make sure that everyone got what they wanted, and in a timely fashion.
The photos from last weekend: $30 for an 8 x 10 hard copy (not bad, if it was a good photo), $45 for an emailed 300 dpi digital, $45 for a cd with 300 dpi photo. I don't understand why it would be that much less for a hard copy than an email, except for extortion. They know that we want them right away for ads, and bragging. For the hard copy or the cd, they have to process the order, print a copy, put it in an envelope, put an address on the envelope, and deliver it to the post office. Email requires processing the order and hitting send! It should be less instead of more.
OK, so I get past that and decide that I would suck it up and order a picture. I get into the check-out phase of the order and find that now there is a $4.00 'PROCESSING FEE!' WTF?!?!?!
I can't bring myself to order from them. Group 1 or not.
This isn't the only place that exhibitors are taken advantage of. ONLINE ENTRIES! We have to pay anywhere between $2.95 to $4.95 per entry online, when we do all of the work. When we mail an entry in, or turn it in at a show, the superintendent has to have a team of people to collect, open, type, and process the entries, and then deposit our checks. They should be giving us the discounts to enter online!
If it weren't for exhibitors, neither the show photographers or the superintendents would exist yet they continue to take advantage of us and there isn't a whole-heck-of-a-lot that we can do about it!
I guess we could all get together and just decide to pick a month, or even just the weekend of a large show, and mail our entries in. Would they get the hint? Maybe I'll have to start a campaign.
